The present invention relates to personal booklets with photographs, and more particularly to personal booklets having a page with a composite image comprising a picture of the bookholder and personal data relating to the bookholder.
Personal booklets such as passports, bankbooks, and so forth have a picture of the bookholder attached to one of the pages thereof as well as personal data of the including the name, nationality, date of birth, sex, date of issue, a personal identification number, and so forth to provide the bookholder's identity. The picture is covered by a transparent sheet and embossed with a seal in order to prevent forgery or alteration of the passport.
The passports are made by at least steps entering the necessary personal data; attaching a picture of the face of the applicant; and covering the attached picture with a transparent cover sheet. Such process is laborious and is inefficient when simultaneously processing a large number of passports. Consequently, the conventional process of making the passports hinders the issuance of the passports.
When applying for a passport, the applicants must supply, in addition to a picture of the applicant to be attached to the passport, an extra picture to be attached to an application form.
In recent years, with the growth of international passengers, machine readable passports (MRPs), machine, have been experimentally introduced at airports of some countries in an attempt to relieve the confusion of passport control for the entry into, and departure from, a country. These MRPs, standardized in form worldwide, can read either optically, electrically, or visually personal data of the bearer thereon by a particular machine.
The process of (making the machine readable passport requires), in addition to all the above described steps, another step of providing machine readable personal data on the passport. Due to this additional step, it is slower to prepare the machine readable passports, hindering the issuance of passports accordingly.